Clothes

One place I haven't really been too worried about being a minimalist is clothes. I will say I probably have a few items I don't wear much. So I guess I am being minimalist in the department of loving everything I have (besides those few things), but I want more. The wardrobe right now is very basic. I need some new pieces. I feel like my wardrobe doesn't really suite me. I see styles I like, but always have a hard time finding things at the mall. I guess I could probably find something if I were to go to the mall alone. I always feel rushed when I go with people. Also, money is the biggest issue.

I really need to work harder not to spend money on stupid stuff and focus on clothes. Since this is the first semester I'm driving alone, (the other semesters I carpooled with Daniel), I have to pay for my own gas. I usually spend about $20 a week. Then I usually spend about $10 in food for the school days. So yeah, I kind of ran out of writing fuel on the one.

Lauren

New pics

I vacuumed my room, dusted, and picked everything up plus it was sunny so I thought I'd take a few pictures.

My bed along with bedstand table. Probably don't "need" it but the lamp next to my bed is nice. Underneath is a basket with my controllers, earplugs, and cough drops (getting over a cold).

Here you can see my non-minimalist set-up. Complete with tv, satellite receiver, blu-ray player, record player, xbox 360 and a couple blu-rays and games. There's a few c.d.s up there too.

Here's my desk again. There's the caddy I took a picture of the other night. The entertainment thing that was in the last pic is kind off peeking though in this one.

Closet doors. I need a pic of my closet. I wanted to take one but there were some things in there I'm wanting to get rid off and didn't want those in the picture.

On the right is the closet from the last picture. On the left is the door to the attic thing I was talking about. And to the left of that is my bed stand table and bed.

So there you go. Almost a complete 360 of my room. The only thing really missing is the rest of the wall my bed is on with the big window. So like I said, it's not super minimalist, but somewhat minimal. I'm slowly getting closer to my goal.

A Couple Pictures

I'm sorry for the bad quality pictures. I have a digital camera, but I almost never use it. It needs batteries and I don't have any. lol. This is my desk. There's not much to it. The left side I'm fine with. I could lose a few pens, but for the most part I'm good with it. On the right I really only want one perfume. Once I'm down to one, I probably won't store it on my desk. Also my computer is usually on the desk. I was using it in my bed so it wasn't in the picture.

This is what I use on a day to day basis for make up and such. There's a few things in here I don't really want. The lotions (I want to buy an organic one when I'm finished with those), I only want one pencil eyeliner and one liquid. Right now I have 1 liquid and 3 pencil. I don't want the blush. I want a different comb. The clear thing is what I store all this stuff in. That black thing is a case that came with my straightener. I also have an eyeliner pencil sharpener and a bobby pin case in there that's kind of hard to see. I forgot to take that exfoliage thing out which is rice paper. I have some more stuff that's not in the picture. But for right now I'm choosing to just show these.

So these both need some work, but I just thought I'd give you all some kind of idea. Well I'm realizing I'm more tired than I thought I was, so I think I'll abandon this post for now.

Here's my minimalist desktop. No icons, and I only have what I use very often in my dock. I like my wallpaper lol. I found that a couple days ago.

Lauren

Why I'm Doing This

From reading many minimalist blogs, I'm learning that a lot of minimalists want to travel. They want to be able to travel lightly. They want to see the world, live life, not live through possessions. Then I realized, that same mindset it what turned me on to minimalism.

I'm 19 years old and I've never lived somewhere longer than 4 years. I've lived in 5 states, 13 houses, gone to 11 schools. I've moved many times. Moving possessions that many times can take a toll on you. Obviously I wasn't old enough to pack for about half the moves. But I've done it enough times for me to know that we as a family have too much crap.

My move from Louisiana to Georgia was somewhat traumatic for me. I was in 10th grade (the summer after about to start my junior year) and we really needed to move. I was definitely happy to move (I hated Louisiana), but I was not happy to pack. Of course I packed my bedroom very quickly and kept only my most frequently used items out. As for the rest of the house, nobody wanted to do it. I have a family that consists of my mom, my step-dad who is a over the road truck driver and only comes home a few times a month, my sister and my brother. So since Ray, my step-dad, was on the road, there was only my mom and the kids to do all the packing. We didn't really start packing until my step-dad came home to actually move us. He was fuming when we found out none of us had packed the house. There was yelling, screaming, rash decisions being made. We ended up throwing out probably 1/8 of our possessions out to the road. The entire curb of our house was full with stuff, trash as well as things that weren't.

It was very rough. We had about 2 days to get the stuffed house packed. Once we were done, we filled an ENTIRE semi truck. All the way to the door. If that gives you any idea of how much stuff we have. That stuff is still sitting around my garage, storage unit, and spare rooms. But that's another story.

Once we left, I couldn't be happier. We were on our way to starting our lives new again. All we owned in a [giant] truck behind us. I love moving.

One thing I love about moving is living off of basics. Since your life is in boxes, you don't know where everything is and are forced to use only what you need or buy disposables (utensils). That's the best. Having a duffel bag of clothes, necessary toiletries, usually only a laptop or something for entertainment. It kind of gives you a vacation from all of your things.  It lets you forget temporarily that you don't have a house full of possessions. Living like that is really what got me going on minimalism. I didn't know that's what it was called at the time. I just knew I loved living with only what you need and love.

I knew I liked living like this, but never really did anything about it until I moved into my next house a few months later that was probably half a mile down the road (where I currently live). The first house was a rental until we could actually buy one. This is my fourth year living in this house. I haven't really started getting rid of things until the last 2 years. But I haven't stopped since, and I love it.

Moving all those times taught me something. Living with less makes moving a lot easier. I haven't done that, but I'm assuming it would. lol. I just want to be free of clutter, free of extra weight, be able to move on a dime, know everything I have. Moving has a lot to do with me wanting to be a minimalist.

Lauren

I'm getting better

So a couple days ago I realized that I'm getting stressed out from lip gloss/ chap stick. That's beyond bad. So instead of keeping it like I said I was going to do, I threw it out. I had enough. I realized that I never used these things and was never going to. One of the chap sticks I bought over 3 years ago I'm realizing. Wow that's bad. I'm sure I was doing myself a favor. The other chap stick was less than a year old, but I just didn't use it. I feel much better now. I'm done to one Burt's Bees chap stick, which exactly how I want it.

So I've kind of come with a list of what I want to get rid of in order of priority:

1. Lotions (2 more left :D I started with like 6)
2. Extra make-up
3. Papers (scan them)
4. Extra office supplies
5. Media (DVD's and CD's)
6. Burning  fragrance oils and tealights ( I think I just want to stick to diffuser sticks)
7. Stuff in bin and drawer (I've been through it several times, but I'm learning I still don't use that stuff)
8. Clothes and purses (my wardrobe is pretty limited right now, but I know there's a few pieces that can go)

I can do all of this, but it won't make a difference unless I have my yard sale. My attic is crammed with stuff that needs to go. I also have stuff in the garage that needs to go. I'm waiting for spring to come. I'm scared I'm gonna have a hard time letting go. But it's safe to say that with all the stuff in there I've really only pulled out maybe 3 pieces max that I want to keep. I guess that's a good sign. I've already done this once (yard sale) and gave everything that didn't sell to goodwill. There was a lot of stuff. But I honestly can't remember what I sold.

Also, I hope to put on some pictures of my room on here in the near future, just to give you all an idea.
 Well I gotta go. I'm getting hungry.

Lauren

Art Supplies

This post is kind of contrary to my last. This is something I've been thinking about for a while. Another area where I kind of suck at being a minimalist is art supplies. And one thing about this is that I almost never make art. Most would say, "if you don't use it, get rid of it." That's the one thing that I just feel kind of hesitant towards. I have prisma colors, oil pastels, sample oil paints, sample acrylic paints, sample water color paint, regular acrylic paint, brushes, pencils, 2 pallets (one for oil one for acrylic), markers. Just tons of stuff. One thing I've thought about doing is limiting myself to watercolors, prisma colors, the 4 markers I have and pencils. The paint is just sitting in a bin in my closet right now, probably thickening and becoming a blob (as acrylic paint does when it gets old).

Even though I don't paint often, I want to. I know if I get rid of it, I will want to paint as soon as it's gone. But if I have barely touched it in two years I should probably get rid of it. It just makes me sad. That was the one thing I was really proud of myself for. I loved that I made art. It wasn't very good, but I liked doing it.

I think I'm gonna do it. In the spring I want to have a garage sale and sell a lot of my stuff.

Taking a step backwords, and I'm ok with it.

So I bought an xbox 360. What comes with buying a game system? Accessories, controllers, cables, games. But I'm actually ok with it. Since becoming "minimalist" or "pseudo-minimalist"my hobbies have kind of dwindled. I used to paint and draw a lot, but I just don't anymore. It doesn't make me as happy as it used to. When I'm not with Daniel, I spend a lot of time on the computer looking up stuff about minimalism and interior design. It's also not uncommon in find me just sitting in my room trying to come up with what I can get rid of next. It gets kind of pathetic.

On the other side, Daniel loves his xbox. We do not live together (if you weren't aware). Since I didn't have one, I couldn't enjoy that with him. Sure he had a few friends that would play, but since we're all growing older and needing to work more, syncing time is kind of difficult. So I thought, hmm I could bond with my fiance when he's at home, it would give me a hobby, and it would keep me from obsessing over my bedroom. Sounds good to me. The way I look at this is that if I'm going to use it, then why not? I'd been thinking about it for a while, but deciding to buy it was somewhat spontaneous.

In my opinion, minimalism is really what you make of it. I think the barebones of what it means is "to make your life simpler and live without excess". I don't think we all have to get rid of our tv and coffee tables to be considered minimalist. My goal is so get down to only what I use and love. Not to see how little I can survive on. Hence the title of my blog.

Lists

Yes, I did JUST post a post, but this one is different from the other. As I mentioned, I have a book of lists. I just thought I'd put a list or two on here relating to my journey. Keep in mind a lot of things have been crossed off, these are just the remaining things on the list.

Long Term To-Do List:

1. Get down to necessities in possessions (haha yeah this one is kind of humorous)
2. Get down to 1 lotion
3. Use up extra make-up
4. Use all Burt's Bees stuff
5. Get a good wardrobe
6. Sell personal books (books that aren't text books I didn't know what else to call them)
7. Make DVD's digital (copy them to computer and get them on my portable hard drive)
8. Get down to 1 chapstick

Short Term To-Do List:

1. Use up organic eyeliner
2. Use up Burt's Bees strawberry lip gloss
3. Use up Burt's Bees cuticle cream
4. Finish powder (make up)
5. Finish blush
6. Finish black amethyst lotion
7. Finish dark kiss lotion

You can probably see the theme here. And yes I do like Burt's Bees, but I kind of have the wrong things. As for the lotion, I'll admit it, I'm a Bath and Body Works addict. I really need to stop buying it and invest in some kind of lotion that doesn't have harsh chemicals in it. But hey, at least I'm learning from my mistakes.

Please realize that yes I am stubborn. I don't want to just throw away these things. Using them makes me get used to not having them rather than just the shock of them disappearing.  I also believe that by doing this, I'm facing the consequences of me buying it in the first place. I will say, it has worked for the most part. Well I guess that's it for tonight.

Lauren

When I Learned

I never really understood or saw that what I was buying was dumb, until one purchase I made. I consider this to be my landmark purchase that ended all stupid purchases.

It happened at a thrift store this past summer. I love to thrift (who doesn't), and I was looking around and found the bags section. One bag I found was this neat looking, vintage camera bag. The second bag I found was a small suitcase that zipped and buckled. The third bag I found was a heavy, leather laptop case. At the time, I had no doubt in my mind that I would end up using all three of these bags.

I did use the vintage camera bag for a while as a purse. It was so stiff and odd though that it wasn't really something you could get something out of quickly. The other two bags sat in my attic area (I have an "attic" in my room. You can just open the door and walk in). I used the suitcase one for storage for a while. The laptop case never got used.

I forgot to mention that before I bought the bags, my fiance and I got into an argument about me buying the bags. Obviously, I wanted to and he thought it was a bad idea. He was right. He even took a voice memo of me admitting he was right (to be funny of course).  I didn't realize when I bought them that within probably a months time the bags would end up in that attic. They still sit there. I'm sure I'll end up writing a blog about that attic. My outbox.

Anyway, me buying those bags made me realize something: I make a lot of stupid purchases. Since then, I have made it a point to analyze what I'm buying. Now, I really think thoroughly if I'm going to use it, or if it will make it's way into my outbox until spring (garage sale). I do still slip up here and there, but for the most part I feel comfortable saying I make smart purchases. Recently, I actually wrote out a list of things I won't allow myself to buy. It's funny though, because I forgot about the last probably two weeks ago and ended up buying something that was on it, and of course I'm regretting it now. That being a either 3 or 5 oz bottle of lotion that was on sale at Bath and Body works. Those "Yellow Sales" get me every time.

Here's the list:
1. fragrance oils (the kind you burn)
2. lotions
3. body sprays
4. things because they're on sale
5. unnecessary make-up (make up that isn't in my daily routine)
6. accessories (purses, jewelry etc.)
7. notebooks
8. organization stuff (odd I know, but sometimes things can be better on their own rather than in some kind of container)
9. decorations
10. office type stuff

Right now, I really want to put my money towards a better wardrobe.  Buying the things on that list prevent that from happening (and do often). I'm doing a lot better though since the bag epiphany.

Lauren

Enjoyed This Story Today

It's in parts, but I found it inspiring:

http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/10/my-minimalist-story-part-1-a-clean-slate/
http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/10/my-minimalist-story-part-2-the-great-unraveling/
http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/11/my-minimalist-story-part-3-my-life-in-a-duffel-bag/
http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/11/my-minimalist-story-part-4-our-dirty-secret/
http://www.missminimalist.com/2009/11/my-minimalist-story-part-5-starting-over/